Saturday, September 17, 2011

A dedicated reader of this blog just informed me, in the Deryl Dedmond, 'Let's go get an "N-word"' case, in which a middle-aged Black man, named James Craig Andersonwas run over by a color-aroused white youth with a pickup truck, now the Black victim's family has asked that the death penalty not be sought against any of the culprits.

Deryl Dedmon, 19, was arrested on a charge of capital murder, which is punishable by death or life without parole. He has not been indicted and it will be up to a grand jury to decide on the formal charges. Capital murder in Mississippi is defined as a murder that happens during the commission of another felony. The underlying offense in this case is the alleged robbery of Anderson.

Police say that Dedmon and a group of teens had been partying late that night in suburban Rankin Countywhen he asked a group of them to go out looking for a black man to "mess with." Seven people allegedly loaded up in two cars and headed to Jackson.

Those responsible for James' death not only ended the life of a talented and wonderful man. They also have caused our family unspeakable pain and grief. But our loss will not be lessened by the state taking the life of another.

( . . . )

"We also oppose the death penalty because it historically has been used in Mississippi and the South primarily against people of color for killing whites. Executing James' killers will not help balance the scales. But sparing them may help to spark a dialogue that one day will lead to the elimination of capital punishment."

Most of the time, the facts of case of police brutality and atrocity speak for themselves, but I have strong feelings and opinions about this case.

Francis L. Holland says:

I wish the family had waited until the penalty phase of the trial to come out with this ameliorating statement. The white boy with blue eyes will probably now get a life sentence with eligibility for parole in ten or fifteen years. The victim's family short-circuited the color-aroused criminal justice system by asking that the boy not receive the harshest penalty for the harshest crime. Now, the trial and subsequent injustice will get far less attention than it deserves nationally and internationally.

Certainly, the death penalty was taken off of table in the O.O. Simpson case, but that case lacked video evidence of the accused beating and then running over his victim with a pick-up truck.

As a matter of reality, there was no way this kid was going to get the death penalty and have it sustained on appeal in Mississippi. There are all sorts of ways they could and would have avoided inflicting the death penalty, such as changing the venue of the trial to an all-white town, doggedly keeping Blacks off of the jury, etc.

The injustice system should have been allowed to embarrass itself and show its skin-color-based decision processes through every phase of the case, as it does in cases in which Blacks are the victims.

I strongly disagree that the victim's family has created a teachable moment this way. Whites think they have a right to kill Black people, so they will think that the Black family's act of generosity and selflessness it is not magnanimous but just another example of Blacks knowing they should step off of the sidewalk when whites go by.

Martin Luther King, Jr. would have approved of this action by the family, where the family tries to teach white people how vengeful they are as a color-group, compared to sane people, in the hopes that embarrassment and the high road will reach their hearts.

I have a color-aroused suspicion that, when this trial is over and the Dedmond, kid will soon be out on probation, doing three months of community service at his local chapter of the Klu Klux Klan chapter.

In expressing that opinion, I have to admit my own experience. When I was seven years old, my sister was shot in the chest by white men who confessed to the act, but served no prison or jail time. Not even for disturbing the peace.

Perhaps the family is wise to argue against the death penalty, since Dedmond wouldn't have gotten the death penalty in any case.

We have realized that "the system," from 911 calls to the gallows, is stacked against Blacks, and so we have fought back with electronic weapons of communication and organization that were never before available to us on this scale.

Today, Field Negro brings our attention to a case that we have fought longand hard. We have won over and over again, by postponing the execution, and seeking new consideration for a probably-not guilty man, but we are down to the wire again. We have to reach out to the Black and progressive public, in the state of Georgia, through mainstream and targeted media, to delay the work of the guillotine, save the life and postpone the death of Troy Davis.

The day we’ve dreaded is finally here:a Georgia judge issued a death warrant for Troy Davis. It shocks the conscience, but despite all the doubt hanging over the case – all the evidence that Troy is likely innocent – Troy is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection as soon as September 21.

Not good enough to put reasonable doubt in your mind? How about the following?

"...upon reviewing his case a federal court held in 2010 that he hadn't proven his "actual innocence" because his post-conviction body of evidence was either "not credible and would be disregarded by a reasonable juror," too general, or both. The presiding judge didn't allow Davis's lawyers to call any of the recanting witnesses—who pinned the murder on a different man at the scene named Sylvester "Redd" Coles— because they hadn't subpoenaed Coles to testify. However, the judge asserted that, even if the lawyers had called Coles to the stand, he might have confessed to the crime just to enhance "his reputation as a dangerous individual." Based on this logic, we should now assume that everyone who's ever confessed to murder probably did so only to enhance their badass reputations and therefore should be released from prison, because they're innocent.

In March the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to give Davis more time to prove his innocence. Despite all the evidentiary issues, Georgia's superior court has scheduled his execution for September 21. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has scheduled a hearing two days before Davis's government-issued death; Davis' lawyers will call some of the recanting witnesses, and maybe the board will be influenced by what they hear. If not, then Davis will be executed.." [Source]

Congrats Governor Deal, if you put Troy Davis down, you too can run for president and get all the adoration and applause from your party loyalist.

We are one day away from September 11th. And the psychos who flew the planes into those buildings were inhumane and had no empathy for their fellow human beings. They represented the worst of what humanity has to offer.

Many readers have already signed the petition with their name. Now, we need to $$$$$$$$$$$$$$sign the petition with our money, to support Color of Change's strategy of pressuring the Georgia Parole Board through paid media buys. This is the only known change that Troy Davis might have left.

why is there so much violence in the black community? The article will include: statistics on crime in impoverished neighborhoods, explain why violence is more prevalent, and explain how Its not just because one race is more violent than another but because the way people are oppressed and through oppression comes coping mechanisms to get through life.

This Journal's response is as follows (but is subject to public comment from all quarters):

Allison:

I believe that one of the reasons there is so much crime in some Black communities is that some whites (and even some Blacks) hate, despise, subjugate and marginalize Blacks, and Blacks have turned that anger inward. Take, for example, your use of the word "race." What do you mean when you use the word "race"? Are you suggesting that people with white skin and people with brown skin are from different species? If you are, then I think that insults Blacks more than the "N" word does.

Whether it comes from Black or white people, I believe the assertion that "race" exists at all is a profound insult to Blacks that can only be based in malice or ignorance. I, quite frankly, am sick and tired of the "R" word. It is, in my opinion, anachronistic and anti-science.

If you would like to write an article explaining why you still use the "R" word, even though the US Government's Human Genome Project has declared conclusively that "race" simply does not exist, then I would be very interested in reading and publishing your article on that topic. I think we all will learn something, no matter what you say about what you mean when you use the "R" word.

Having said that, if you want to write about Black people and crime, and you demonstrate that you have something new and original to bring to the topic, then I'll gladly publish what you write. I would just request that you either define "race" as a factor in your research or find a way to describe what you mean to say without using the "R" word and without asserting that I and other people with brown skin belong to a species that is separate and distinct from that comprising the white-skin-color-group.

If you insist that you cannot discuss this topic without using the word and the concept of "race," then I insist that you explain and support your definition of the "R" word in light of the findings of the US Government's Human Genome Project and the following articles that the Nature.Com website offers as suggested further reading on the topic, based on scientific genomic research completed within the last decade:

What we do and don't know about 'race', 'ethnicity', genetics and health at the dawn of the genome erappS13 - S15Francis S CollinsPublished online: 26 October 2004|doi:10.1038/ng1436Abstract|Full text|PDF (330K)

Last week, we delivered the petition signatures at Alvarez's office in downtown Chicago. But Alvarez so far remains silent. We need to step up the pressure.

Can you make a quick call to Alvarez's office (312 325-9200) and demand that she vacate the convictions of these innocent men? If enough of us call, it will let her know we're not going away and increase the pressure on her to act. Just click the link to make your call — we'll give you the number and a short script you can use:

Attorney Alvarez needs to know that we will hold her accountable for blocking justice and supporting law enforcement practices that compromise all of our safety. Please take a moment now to call Alvarez and ask her to immediately correct these outrageous wrongs.

-- Rashad, James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Matt, Natasha and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
September 9th, 2011

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU--your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don't share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here:

Friday, September 9, 2011

I read an e-mail recently that pointed out with great specificity the problems that Blacks are having with police and the criminal justice system in one geographical area, but that then proposed the following as causes leading to potential solutions:

I wrote back with the following opinion, which I've embellished with citations and statistics below:

I believe the police are doing exactly what they are trained to do, which is to occupy the Black community and keep it under a state of siege. When police learn to profile based on skin color during their training courses, they are receiving "training" to suspect, beat, arrest and imprison Black people disproportionately. If this is what you mean when you say "poor training" then I agree with you.

Supervisors in police departments almost always support police officers who have committed even the most savage and unconscionable acts under color of law. If by "poor supervision" you mean that supervisors encourage officers to target Blacks, then I agree with you that "poor supervision" is a problem.

When police departments recruit police officers, they recruit people whom they believe will behave consistent with the above policies of color-aroused injustice. Police know what their job is in the Black community and with respects to Blacks who are in a white community or institution: arrest and convict enough Black people to maintain one million Blacks in jail and prison, which has the highest imprisonment rates of any country on Earth, by far.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China's extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

( . . . )

The United States comes in first, too, on a more meaningful list from the prison studies center, the one ranked in order of the incarceration rates. It has 751 people in prison or jail for every 100,000 in population. (If you count only adults, one in 100 Americans is locked up.)

US rates are in large part driven by disproportionate minority incarceration.

In the US, African Americans are over six times as likely to be incarcerated as whites; Latinos over twice as likely. If the US enacted the reforms necessary to reduce its disproportionate minority confinement by just 50%, the incarceration rate would drop to approximately 491 and put the US fifth in the world instead of first (see Harrison & Beck, 2006 and US Census Bureau, 2006a).

§ 20% of the general population;§ 42% of those arrested for criminal offenses;§ 64% of the prison population; and§ 86.8% of those incarcerated for drug offenses.

This is not, as many assume, attributable to a higher incidence of criminal behavior amongBlacks. The national data shows that Non-whites are statistically more likely to be imprisoned because they are more likely to be arrested than Whites. Much of this appears tobe attributable to the “war on drugs.” Studies have consistently shown that Whites use drugs at rates comparable to Blacks, which makes them the vast majority of illicit drug users.

The racial disparity in the justice system originates predominantly at the point of first contact with law enforcement. Depending on the level and type of crime, the disparity may increase, remain roughly the same, or in some cases decrease as the case moves through the justice system; however, this change is typically not significant when compared to the disparity that occurs at arrest.

This point of first contact can occur through police response to 911 calls or through more discretionary activities such as traffic stops, police contact in the community (e.g. for loitering, lurking), or in the case of juveniles, through interactions with school administration (e.g. for disorderly conduct). Studies from across the country have shown that a disproportionate number of African Americans are routinely stopped and searched while driving4. This finding holds true in Minnesota.

Here, law enforcement officers stop Black, Latino, and American Indian drivers all at a greater rate than White drivers; search Blacks, Latinos and American Indians all at a greater rate than White drivers; and find contraband as a result of searches of Blacks, Latinos, and American Indians all at a rate lower than in searches of White drivers. African Americans drivers, for example, are stopped at a rate 3.5 times higher than Whites; searched at a rate 3.4 times higher, yet have contraband found on their person or in their car only half as often as Whites (Council: Racial Profiling, 2003).

The racial disparity at point of first contact carries over into arrests. A Council study found that for every 100,000 people in each racial group, the arrest rate was 4,138 for African Americans, 1,277 for American Indians, 188 for Asians, and 404 for Whites. The racial disparity (i.e. the ratio of arrest rates) for African American to White was 10:1; for Latinos to White 4:1; and

Nationally, the disparity for African Americans and Whites was 4: 1; which
means that the arrest rate disparity in Minnesota is more than twice the national average. The racial disparity is larger for low level offenses where police officer discretion is the greatest. In 2001, the equivalent of one out of four Black residents of Minneapolis were either arrested or cited for such low-level offenses as disorderly conduct, loitering or lurking. For Whites, the number was one in sixty, yielding a disparity of fifteen to one (Council: Low Level Offense, 2004).

The racial disparity in low level offense arrests is also true for juveniles. In Minneapolis, African American juveniles are at least four times more likely to be cited or booked for loitering than White juveniles. In Brooklyn Center, African American juveniles represent 20 percent of the population, yet are 65 percent of those who are either cited or arrested (Council: Disproportionate Minority Contact II, 2006).

The above is not evidence of lack of "poor training" or "poor supervision." It is evidence of systematic and blatantly obvious color-aroused policing patterns that are apparent to anyone who visits a jail in a majority white state (all states).

Overall, this problem is not one of negligence, but rather one of a white nation intentionally focusing on Black communities for more violent, more stringent and more punitive treatment. When we complain, police departments and politicians assure us that better training, supervision and recruitment could reverse these realities. We buy into this story that says that police abuses are not intentional but are negligent results of lapses. The truth is that police abuse of Blacks is no more negligent (accidental and unintended) than Klu Klux Klan rallies and lynchings. What they do is intentional and based on a clear understanding of the injustice rather than an ignorance of it.

The police represent American society's worst attitudes about Blacks. Training police not to abuse Blacks is like training tigers not to attack rabbits and to be vegetarians instead. Good luck! What we need is political change with respect to the fact and results of color-arousal in the United States and elsewhere.

I believe this is why the Black Panther Party focused on "revolution" as the solution, even though it was hard to imagine how a small Black minority of the American population could take control of the Government and change its policing and incarceration behavior. It was clear to the Black Panthers that minor retouches to a fundamentally color-aroused (in)justice system, in a profoundly color-aroused incarceration society, would be insufficient and mostly meaningless in terms of addressing and redressing the blatant and rampant discrimination against, subjugation and imprisonment of Blacks by "the system."

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Even after afrosphere blogger Francis L. Holland, Esq. refused to publicize the Political Justice Degrees website in exchange for their linking to this blog, they have nonetheless selected this Police Brutality (and Atrocity) Blog as number eight among 100 "Police and Detective Blogs". This is particularly significant in light of the their criteria for selecting blogs for this list.

Criminal justice is perhaps one of the the most broad reaching fields of study in education today. It incorporates not only the topics that immediately come to mind such as law enforcement, corrections and the courts, but also political history, social issues, psychology and civil liberties among many others. This diversity of issues makes criminal justice dynamic but it also makes it dizzyingly complex for someone trying to educate themselves in justice issues. Consequently, we have compiled this list to help anyone involved in the criminal justice field — including academics, practitioners and students — find information and resources about their niche, as well as any other aspect of criminal justice.

Police and Detective Blogs

Get a feel for what it’s like to police the streets in some of the world’s toughest cities by checking out this list.

Our Police Brutality (and Atrocity Blog) is number eight among the list of 100 blogs.

When I started the Police Brutality Blog, it was with the goal of doing what the Black Panther Paper did four decades ago: it made local examples of color-aroused injustice into national outrages that stiffened all of our resolve to dismantle what was once called "racism" and is now called "color-aroused injustice." If the Black Panthers had had the electronic resources that we do now, they would have had two million followers on Facebook, including the FBI and the local and state police departments as avid readers.

Ironically, the Police Brutality Blog has become a place where both police and their brutality victims, as well as students of the police/public interface, can encounter opposing views about cases without this resulting in violence and arrests. But, I admit that I feel safer writing this blog about American injustice from Brazil than from Boston or Newark. I would hate to be stopped driving while Black, for the officer to then realize I was the man helping to turn obscure local police brutality into nationally and internationally repulsive police injustice cases.

Perhaps the most important thing do is to support local Black Accused Support Groups (BASG's), as well as national Black accused support groups like Color of Change, and highlighted individuals like Kelly Williams-Bolar:

Kelley Williams-Bolar, the Ohio mother who was convicted of a felony after allegedly misleading authorities and sending her children to a school outside her district. We just learned that Ohio Governor John Kasich granted Williams-Bolar executive clemency, reducing her convictions from felonies to misdemeanors. Gov. Kasich took this action despite the fact that Friday, the Ohio parole board made a unanimous recommendation against any form of clemency.

By bringing local cases to national attention, we bring a new level of scrutiny, embarrassment and public responsibility to local police officers and police forces, who realize that there might well be a digital camera capturing their behavior and spreading it worldwide. More than ever before we who fight color-aroused injustice can say to local police forces that, "The whole world is watching."

The following comes from Color of Change regarding a great victory in a criminal court case in which Color of Change and US and international afrosphere and other bloggers publicly intervened:

Dear Atty,

There's great news today in the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar, the Ohio mother who was convicted of a felony after allegedly misleading authorities and sending her children to a school outside her district. We just learned that Ohio Governor John Kasich granted Williams-Bolar executive clemency, reducing her convictions from felonies to misdemeanors. Gov. Kasich took this action despite the fact that Friday, the Ohio parole board made a unanimous recommendation against any form of clemency.

This is a huge victory, and it wouldn't have happened without the activism of ColorOfChange members, and our friends at Change.org and MomsRising.org:

When we first learned of the case in February, more than 67,000 ColorOfChange members called on Gov. Kasich to take a public stand and commit to pardoning Williams-Bolar.

We delivered your signatures to Gov. Kasich's office, along with thousands more from Change.org and MomsRising.org — more than 165,000 signatures in all. The next day, Gov. Kasich responded to the public pressure by asking the state's parole board to review Williams-Bolar's case.

On Friday, Ohio's parole board finally came back with a recommendation for the Governor — to deny Williams-Bolar a pardon.

In response to the parole board's recommendation, many of you swung into action this week, calling Gov. Kasich's office and urging him to issue Williams-Bolar a pardon anyway. Today, Gov. Kasich announced that he would reduce Williams-Bolars felony convictions to first-degree misdemeanors.

Williams-Bolar will still be on probation and will need to complete 80 hours of community service; but she won't have a felony conviction following her for the rest of her life, limiting her opportunities. Thanks for getting involved — without your voice, things could have turned out much differently for Kelley Williams-Bolar. You should be proud.

At ColorOfChange, we'll continue to fight to end inequality in education and the criminal justice system, we hope you'll continue to be there with us. Remember, our work is powered by you, our members. If you can support our work financially, in any amount, please click the link below.

-- Rashad, James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Matt, Natasha and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
September 7th, 2011

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU—your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don't share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here: